We’ll be wondering for a long time if the wave of revivals, reboots and sequels hogging TV in recent years is a good or a bad thing, but when in doubt, it looks like HBO Max has chosen “safe used” to make sure. prestige among newspapers and visibility on social networks. And so, after the reunion of Friends and the first official photo of the new one Sex and the City, here is the return of another evergreen of the 2000s to attract not only the Millennials who have grown up with that evergreen, but also the very young who have appreciated it late on streaming platforms such as Netflix: Gossip Girl, the series broadcast by The CW from 2007 to 2012 that returns with a new cast but with the same limitations and defects as the original.
Of this reboot, which in Italy does not yet have an official distribution, in fact, there has been much talk in America because the premises included the choice of more inclusive protagonists and the selection of broader themes than the elite of very spoiled kids who care only of their intricacies among the ultra-glamorous clubs of the Upper East Side. In short, it was hoped that HBO would go over the obstacle and ferry Gossip Girl in a more “committed” and more introspective dimension but, judging from the first episode, unfortunately it wasn’t like that.
We are back at Constance Billard School and we are again faced with a group of kids who boast that they are in control of the school because, thanks to checks signed by their parents, they have the power to fire the most annoying teachers and to rise to the role. of “principals” for the simple fact of having the money and followers. The substantial novelty compared to the original series lies, in fact, in the invasion of social networks that become the new parameter to increase the popularity and self-esteem of students.: if the reputation of being accepted and surrounded by all has always been a constant in American culture – it would be interesting to point out that the toxicity of the caste of cheerleaders and basketball and football champions comes from the country that is thinking of banning Homer because the ‘Odyssey was not full enough of underrepresented minorities -, social networks have become the means to test the approval rating we collect with others, convincing us that the growth or decrease of followers is directly proportional to our value and our ability to stay world. The new queen bee of the school is called Julien Calloway (Jordan Alexander), she has all the requisites of the inclusiveness required by the new US star-system (black, sexually fluid in the look) but she is not deep enough to go beyond the speck of the wealthy girl who thinks she has everyone at her feet. For Julien, everything is destined to bring her something: followers, little hearts, visibility, love among subjects.
To feed the plot is his relationship with half-sister Zoya Lott (Whitney Peak), which in the new Gossip Girl looks like some kind of Dan Humphrey caressing the Manhattan glitter for the first time: their mother, before dying, expressed a wish that their daughters would meet and like each other, and that’s where the story starts, too if it is easy to understand that the idyll between the two is destined to last a short time. Zoya comes from Buffalo, she becomes a freshman at Constance Billard School to be closer to Julien even if the latter’s only concern is to insert her into his group of treacherous and snobbish friends without arousing suspicion. This is where the new one comes into play Gossip Girl, which is no longer a blog run by who knows who but an Instagram account opened by (spoilers!) teachers looking for a way to get the students straight so that Constance can go back to churning out the Barack Obamas of tomorrow.
Between pansexuality, love affairs, plans for revenge, Uber and an “anti-Zara” law clamored by rich girls who unwrap a Louis Vuitton bag on the school steps, the bitter truth is that the reboot of Gossip Girl it does not go beyond the superficiality of the former, sketching characters and stories that faithfully follow the clichés and stereotypes most popular among American teen-dramas. Most of the press turns up their noses – on the other hand, it is mainly the newspapers that are interested in the phenomenon of revivals and reboots that get caught up in the nostalgic euphoria of the first hour and then give up immediately after airing – but, on the other hand, the intuition to bring the franchise back to life proved to be right: in just 4 days, the first episode of the new Gossip Girl was the most viewed ever on HBO Max, impressions on TikTok were 15 billion and, in short, if we cannot identify with what we see, we might as well peek into the Upper East Side apartments that we will never be able to afford. XOXO.
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